Several dog breeds are used in law enforcement world-wide.
The most common are German shepherds, Labrador retrievers and Belgian malinois, but Airedale-Belgian malinois mixes, pit-bulls, Rottweilers, Alsatians, cocker spaniels, beagles and beagle-spaniel mixes are also used.
The tasks performed by dogs include searching passengers, vehicles, aircraft, ships and cargo for bombs, drugs and agricultural contraband at borders, ports, and airports, as well as at crime scenes or on regular patrol.
Dogs are used to search for missing persons, including lost children.
They track and capture fleeing criminals or escaped prisoners.
Dogs augment control of protestors and prisoners.
They can immediately detect trace quantities of as many as 17 different flammable, volatile liquids used in arson, in concentrations measured in parts per billion.
That is 1,000 times more sensitive than portable electronic probes.
A more sensitive laboratory gas chromatography analysis takes several days.
It is claimed that dogs can identify individuals from samples of their scent.
Agencies tout the successful exploits and human interest stories of their dogs and handlers for good public relations in the media and in schools, offset by occasional instances of overly aggressive dog attacks.
Many U.S. city, county, state and federal police, fire and correctional departments use dogs for the above mentioned tasks.
So do police, border and security forces in Germany, Britain, Argentina, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Mexico, the Netherlands and Italy.
U.S. Customs, Border Patrol, Postal Service, Secret Service, FBI and military police also use dogs for much the same kinds of tasks.
